Thursday, March 30, 2017

TAG
Aviation Europe is pleased to announce that it has received the Air Operators
Certificate (AOC) from the Transport Malta - Civil Aviation Directorate (TMCA). The granting
of the Maltese AOC is the culmination of several months of dedicated planning
and reaffirms TAG's commitment to continue its expansion into new EU
territories and provide its customers with an attractive choice of aircraft
commercial registration. (Source: TAG Aviation, 27-Mar-2017)

Monday, March 27, 2017

Wizz Air launched today its new route between Cluj-Napoca (Romania) and Malta IAP. The first scheduled flight, operated with Airbus A320-200 (HA-LPJ) landed at Malta IAP (W6-3399) at 1946lt. The return flight to Cluj departed from Malta IAP (W6-3400) at 2038lt. WizzAir will be operating this route twice-weekly. (26-Mar-2017)

Saturday, March 25, 2017

The Royal Navy Echo-class survery vessel HMS Echo (H 87) sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this morning on a courtesy visit. This is her second port-call in Valletta this year.The British survey vessel is currently deployed in the Mediterranean and assigned to E.U. Naval Force Mediterranean (Operation Sofia). HMS Echo is presently berthing alongside at Pinto-4 wharf, and she's expected to sail from Valletta Port tomorrow. (25-Mar-2017)

Thursday, March 23, 2017

With a
planned 150 weekly flights to 30 destinations, Air Malta will start its summer
schedule on Sunday Mar. 26th.
The Maltese national airline will operate with a fleet of eight aircraft,
similar to last year and is set to carry over 1.2 million passengers during the
coming seven-months.

After
a period of consolidation, Air Malta can announce one definite new destination,
and is close to deciding a second new destination. After having operated in the
past as charter destination, Air Malta will soon offer Tel Aviv as a scheduled
service, making it possible to buy seats through its websiteand
also travel agents.

And
there is more good news. This summer Air Malta has increased frequencies
on Munich, Brussels, Amsterdam, Vienna, Zurich, Rome, Catania, Lyon, Palermo,
Prague and Moscow. The airline will operate with up to double daily flights in
peak summer to Munich, Rome and Catania.

"Besides
more flights to some of our best leisure and business destinations, we are also
concentrating on the most convenient international airports that offer
world-wide connections to and from Malta. Air Malta is determined to further
grow in its key markets and work to open new traffic streams to new leisure
markets in the medium term", said P. Sies, Air Malta's Chief Officer
Commercial.

"Besides
Tel Aviv we are expecting to announce another new destination for this summer.
Air Malta will offer increased value for money in its new business model and
besides structural competitive fares please do watch out for our flash sales
actions several times per year. We operate the most comfortable and
conveniently timed flight schedule and route network to and from Malta. Through
our code-share partners we offer connections far and beyond Air Malta’s
network", added Mr Sies.

Apart
from the scheduled services this summer Air Malta is operating an interesting
series of charter operations to Tel-Aviv, Bucharest, Warsaw, Bratislava,
Ljubljana, Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Corfu Chania and Lourdes.

The Italian Navy aircraft carrier ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi (551) sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this morning on a courtesy visit. She has two helicopters on board, an AB-212 (serial MM81090) and SH-90 (serial MM81590).The Italian carrier is currently deployed in the Mediterranean and she's the mission flagship of the E.U. Naval Force Mediterranean (Operation Sofia). ITS G. Garibaldi is presently berthing alongside at Boiler wharf, and she's expected to sail from Valletta Port this Saturday, Mar. 26th. (23-Mar-2017)

Saturday, March 11, 2017

A Germanwings A319-100 (D-AKNM), performing flight 4U-2818 from Stuttgart (Germany) to Catania-Fontanarossa (Sicily, Italy) had to divert to Malta IAP this afternoon after encountering strong winds while attempting to land at Catania. The aircraft then continued with its flight to Catania reaching destination with a delay of 3.5-hrs on its original time. (11-Mar-2017)

Friday, March 10, 2017

Wizz Air launched today its new route between Katowice (Poland) and Malta IAP. The first scheduled flight, operated with Airbus A320-200 (HA-LYI) landed at Malta IAP (W6-1163) at 1242. The return flight to Katowice departed from Malta IAP (W6-1164) at 1347lt. WizzAir will be operating this route twice-weekly. (10-Mar-2017)

Thursday, March 9, 2017

The Royal Navy assault carrier HMS Ocean (L 12) sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this morning on a courtesy visit. She has two Merlin helicopters on board, serials ZH854 and ZH835.The British carrier is presently berthing alongside at Pinto-1/2 wharf, and she's expected to sail from Valletta Port on Sunday, Mar. 12th. (9-Mar-2017)

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Malta International Airport welcomed 296,250
passengers in February, translating into a remarkable 25.2% increase in traffic
over the same period in 2016, in spite of the fact that this year the month was
a day shorter.

This makes February the fourth, consecutive winter
month to register double-digit growth, in line with the airport’s strategy to
attract more traffic in the shoulder months. On the busiest day in February,
which coincided with Carnival weekend, the airport team was kept busy with a
total of 13,679 passengers passing through the terminal.

Growth in passenger numbers was experienced in
parallel with an upturn of 22.3% in aircraft movements and an increase of 29.4%
in seat capacity. Standing at 76.8%, seat load factor, however,
registered a decrease of 2.6% over last year.

Malta IAP's top markets remained
largely unchanged from January, with the U.K. topping the list followed by
Italy, Germany, Belgium, and France. More than half of the 59,602 additional
passengers welcomed last month traveled from Italy, Germany and Belgium, with
enhanced connectivity to these markets contributing to their notable growth.

Outside of the top five markets, Spain and Poland
were important contributors to February's total traffic, accounting for 12,435
passengers and 8,253 passengers, respectively. Both of these markets have been
experiencing steady growth, following stepped-up efforts to redevelop the
Spanish market and enhance connectivity to Eastern Europe.The maximum take-off weight (MTOW) at the airport
also experienced a 30.0% growth to reach 96,282 tonnes, while the weight of
cargo and mail increased by 25.5% to reach 1,359 tonnes. (Source: maltairport.com, 7-Mar-2017)

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Malta IAP has placed third in the
Best Airport by Region (Europe) category in Airports Council International's
2016 Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards.Airports Council International (ACI) today
announced the winners of its ASQ Awards, following the rating of 284 airports
worldwide by passengers travelling through them during the course of 2016.

Malta IAP obtained its highest
score to date in this survey, which measures passengers' overall satisfaction
with their airport experience, including staff efficiency and courtesy, ease of
way finding and airport facilities. This landed the airport in a prestigious
third place from among eighty-four European peers welcoming over two million
passengers annually. Sharing this spot with Malta IAP are
Dublin (28 milllion pax/year), Porto (seven million pax/year) and Zurich (27 million pax/year)
airports. (Source: maltairport.com, 6-Mar-2017)

Three new routes and more flights to a number of others will
mean Ryanair will start delivering 2.2 million visitors to Malta every year.

The low-cost airline announced on Wednesday it
would be introducing new routes to Belfast (Ireland), Naples (Italy) and Riga (Latvia) as from its winter
2017 schedule, while also adding more flights to Gdansk, Krakow, Stockholm
Skavsta, Venice Treviso, Vilnius and Wroclaw.

The new will routes raise the total number of
routes linked to Malta via Ryanair to 40, with flights increasing to a total of
109 each week.

Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer D. O’Brien
said that the new routes were further proof of the airline's continued
commitment to Malta.

O’Brien said the airline had also recorded record
bookings on its Malta summer 2017 schedule, mainly due to more flights to
destinations for summer family holidays, low fares and a better customer
experience. (Source: maltatoday.com, 1-Mar-2017)

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Wizz Air yesterday announced planned service expansion at
Skopje
(Republic of Macedonia) starting mid-July 2017,
thanks to the addition of fourth based aircraft. The airline plans to introduce three new routes. One the new routes will be between Skopje and Malta IAP, effective from Jul. 14th, with two weekly flights on Monday and Fridays. (Source: routesonline.com, 1-Mar-2017)